Abstract
Leigh, J. (1994). Contracting for social services: A process evaluation of the Community Funding Agency's contracting procedures. Unpublished Master of Social Science Thesis. Hamilton: University of Waikato.
In May 1992 the Community Funding Agency (CFA) was established as one of three new operating businesses of the Department of Social Welfare. One of the key tasks for CFA is contracting with voluntary agencies for the provision of social services. The Community Funding Agency has a head office in Wellington and eight area teams. Each area team has a number of outreach workers who are responsible for contracting for social services in a particular geographic area. This research project describes a process evaluation of CFA's contracting procedures.
A naturalistic method of inquiry was used to gather information. Emphasis was placed on collecting qualitative data through conducting open-ended interviews with staff working in 20 voluntary agencies, run primarily by Pakeha, in the Wellington area. Open-ended interviews were also conducted with ix CFA outreach workers, a CFA staff member at management level, and key informants in the Wellington area. Quantitative data was collected from the voluntary agencies through administration of a ratings questionaire.
The most frequent comments from the interviews with voluntary agency staff, and the majority of responses from ratings questionaire, indicated that CFA could improve their effectiveness in working with voluntary agencies to negotiate and manage contracts for the provision of social services.
The voluntary agencies were concerned about the unequal relationship between CFA and the voluntary agencies, the one-sided nature of negotiations, the time and resources needed to accomodate CFA's accountability requirements, the low level of information sharing between CFA and the voluntary agencies; and the high turn over of, and lack of contact with CFA outreach workers. Most of the voluntary agencies were having to operate with decreasing funding at a time of increasing client loads, increasing accountablity requirements from CFA and other funders, and greater competition for other sources of funding.
Community Funding agency outreach workers acknowledged that CFA was constantly reviewing and improving its contracting procedures. However, the outreach workers also expressed similar concerns to the voluntary agencies. Particular concerns were, the shortage of CFA staff at an outreach worker level, the high administration requirements of the contracting process, and the lack of contact with voluntary agencies.
Where CFA's contracting process was seen to be effective, the voluntary agencies had regular contact with, and had established a good working relationship with CFA outreach workers, there was a level of negotiation present in deciding the terms and conditions of the contract and the level of funding, and accountability requirements were adaptable and flexible in accordance with voluntary agencies resources and own way of operating.
The Community Funding agency's own limited funding resources impacted upon the contracting process in terms of the social services CFA was able to contract, the extent to which the level of funding voluntary agencies could be negotiated, and the resourcing of CFA outreach workers to effectively carry out their role to negotiate and manage contracts with voluntary agencies.
If the contracting process is to work effectively and efficently it appears necessary for the Government t o adequately resource the Community Funding Agency. As well, a list of recommendations is offered on how CFA may improve the internal operation od CFA's contracting procedures. |
Community Psychology